Why Your Paid Ads Aren’t Performing

When it comes to creating great ads, throwing more money at them is not always the best way to get results. There are several reasons why your paid ads may not be performing the way you hoped, and a few simple solutions can help you earn better returns.

If you know what to do, it might take only a few minutes of cleaning up your ads to start seeing improved results in the weeks to come.

Hitting the Wrong Target Audience

Yes, it takes time to figure out who your ideal audience is for an ad. Paid ads on Facebook, especially, need to be closely targeted to have their desired effect. Posting tons of generalized ads usually doesn’t do enough to grab attention away from family photos and funny memes.

If you didn’t invest the time early on to create buyer personas, now is the time to do so. Buyer personas can help you change the language and the look of your ads to better reach certain demographics.

Bad Ad Scheduling

People use the internet for many different purposes, including entertainment and work. If you are not properly timing your ads to how your targeted users spend their time, you could be missing out.
Are your ads showing up in the middle of the night while your customers are asleep? Timing your ads is an important part of cutting down on wasted ad spend and maximizing productivity.

Bad Keywords or Phrasing

Google puts your ads through a rigorous approval process before they go live. If you are inadvertently using language that is not approved for ads, it’s possible that your ads aren’t showing up at all for the public.
Even little things like too many exclamation points or too many words in all caps can keep your ad from passing Google’s filters. Fortunately, when creating paid ads on Google, the system will let you know if it believes you have made a mistake.

Budget Problems

No, money isn’t always the answer, but you also need to be realistic with your expectations. The most important keywords cost more money. If you want your ads to show up more than a handful of times each week, you need to be sure that your budget allows for that. Budgeting a dollar a day is not enough to get your ad in front of many people.

The best thing to do when it comes to your paid campaign is to create several buyer personas and create a couple of very targeted ads. Continue to monitor their success for a few weeks. Both Google and Facebook provide helpful feedback that will allow you to modify your ad and adjust your targeting for even better results.

To learn more about how to build a solid paid campaign, you can check out our blog here.